Police nab suspect in Lewis-McFarlane murder

February 5, 2014 ·
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By Brock Weir

Police have a male suspect custody in connection with the murder of Aurora native Shirley Lewis-McFarlane.

Ms. McFarlane, 53, a long-time resident of Aurora who recently located to Jamaica, was found dead in her Discovery Bay, Jamaica, home on December 30. Investigations have been ongoing ever since, before a break was made in the case last week.

As The Auroran went to press last week, Superintendent Yvonne Martin-Daley of the St. Ann Parish branch of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, said police were investigating a new lead and later confirmed this lead was indeed a suspect.

Superintendent Martin-Daley would not confirm the identity of the suspect or his relationship with Ms. Lewis-McFarlane.

“Police are working on some delicate issues,” she said. “If there are other persons involve, we really don’t want them to be tipped off. They are proceedingin a delicate way. There are other persons [investigators] want to get information from because they gave given statements. It is important that we find the persons and pull all the different aspects of the investigation together. He is a suspect right now and we are doing some other stuff to get information.”

What the Superintendent did confirm, however, was the suspect was not one of three individuals held in custody for questioning in mid-January before being subsequently released, and they continue questioning individuals connected with the victim’s life on the island.

“Mrs. McFarlane, it would appear, had quite a number of friends here,” said Superintendent Martin-Daley. “As she lived a quiet life, so to speak, not a lot of people knew her activities. We have to ask the right questions and recognize people aren’t necessarily going to be [forthcoming]. We have to use forensic evidence as far as is practical right now.”

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